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The Densho Legacy Archive Offers a Glimpse into Hard Work and Passion That Built Densho
Densho Project Archivist Will Allen has been helping to create Densho’s Legacy Archive, an archive of Densho’s organizational records since its founding in 1996. Will shares some highlights from this…
Photo Essay: A Day of Remembrance and Resistance
Last weekend marked the 82nd anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and incarceration of more than 125,000 Japanese Americans during World War II….
This 150 Year Old Bonsai Holds the Incredible History of One Japanese American Family
The Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way, Washington connects people to nature through the living art of bonsai. The Densho communications team recently had the chance to visit the museum…
Photo Essay: Japanese Canadian Internment Field School
In this photo essay, Densho’s communications and public engagement director Natasha Varner shares images and some of what she learned during a two-week immersive learning experience about Japanese Canadian internment…
Sharing Gidra’s Lessons on Art and Solidarity with the Next Generation of Student Activists
Over the past several months, Densho staff worked with some incredible artists and educators to develop a hands-on zine-making workshop for middle and high school students. Using the radical Asian…
Photo Essay: 2022 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage
Several Densho staff members were honored to be among the attendees of the 2022 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage this past weekend. This was Heart Mountain’s first major on-site pilgrimage since the…
“Show Me The Way To Go to Home”: Photo Essay by Sandy Sugawara
Three years ago, Sansei journalist and photographer Sandy Sugawara set out to visit each of the War Relocation Authority camps where Japanese Americans, including her parents and grandparents, were incarcerated…
Photo Essay: Japanese Peruvian Lives Before World War II
During World War II, the United States colluded with several Central and South American nations to imprison some 2,200 Japanese Latin Americans on US soil. The majority—nearly 1,800—were abducted from…
Archives Spotlight: The Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple Collections
In honor of American Archives Month, we feature a guest post from Densho Digitization Tech, Christen Greenhill Robichaud. In this essay, Robichaud details her team’s work on an exciting new…
Photo Essay: The First Manzanar Pilgrimage
On December 27, 1969, an intergenerational group of Issei, Nisei, Sansei, and a few Yonsei made the 220-mile trek from Los Angeles to Manzanar. It was the first organized pilgrimage…
Photo Essay: Yoshio Okumoto’s Views of Life in Heart Mountain
Many of the “iconic” photos of Japanese American incarceration that we are most familiar with today were taken by white photographers who worked as outsiders looking in. But, as the…
Photo Essay: Japanese American Military Service during WWII
Despite facing extreme race-based scrutiny and suspicion, Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during WWII in disproportionate numbers—even as many of their families were stuck in government-run concentration camps….
Photo Essay: Japanese American History Through the Eyes of Everyday Families
Personal collections are a critical component of Densho’s archives. These collections, donated by families and individuals, provide amazing insights into Japanese American history that might otherwise be forgotten, while allowing…
Photo Essay: The Amache Silk Screen Shop
The Amache concentration camp in southeastern Colorado was, in many ways, similar to other War Relocation Authority camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II: rural and rugged,…
Photo Essay: Day of Remembrance, Day of Action
Despite torrential rains in Tacoma this weekend, Tsuru for Solidarity supporters showed up in droves to raise their voices in opposition to immigrant detention. They gathered outside the Northwest Detention…
Photo Essay: Japanese Americans Return to the West Coast After WWII Incarceration
The exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during WWII came to an official end on January 2, 1945. By the end of the year, nine of the ten…
Photo Essay: Minidoka National Historic Site Unveils New Visitor Center
Earlier this month, about 325 people gathered in southeast Idaho for the 17th annual Minidoka Pilgrimage. Over the course of four days, pilgrims learned about the history and legacy of…
Photo Essay: Early Nikkei Excursions to Mt. Rainier
On a clear day, the 14,411-foot peak of Mt. Rainier looms large on Seattle’s southern horizon. The glacial mountain has played a major role in the lives of people living…
Photo Essay: Hikaru Iwasaki’s Sunny Views of Resettlement Americana
While the photographs of Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange have helped shape visual understandings of World War II incarceration, there are many lesser known photographers who documented the Japanese American…
Tule Lake Pilgrimage, 1974
In this American Archives Month guest post, Densho Digital Archivist Caitlin Oiye Coon looks at a recently published collection of photos by Gerald Kajitani. The photos document the second pilgrimage…
Photo Essay: Fairground Detention Facilities
Fairgrounds in Fresno, Merced, Pomona, Puyallup, Salinas, Stockton, Tulare, and Turlock have a dark common history. Seventy five years ago, they served as sites for the temporary detention of Japanese…
25 Times Gidra Was Goddamn Glorious
From 1969 to 1974, Gidra, the unofficial voice of “the Movement,” chronicled changing tides and unfolding dramas within the Asian American community. Taking its name from a giant three-headed dragon…
Photo Essay: Japanese American Mothers During WWII
Mothers’ Day is around the corner—which means most of us are busy getting ready to show some love and affection to the women who raised us. (Y’all should really be…
Sold, Damaged, Stolen, Gone: Japanese American Property Loss During WWII
Imagine being told you had a week to pack up all your belongings. You can bring all the bedding, clothing, and toiletries you can carry, but you better find a…